Benedict, Garboo, Garland, and Growing Up Geeky

[filkertom]

In comments on the previous thread, amgem mentioned several other celebrities who passed away recently, one of whom was the fine actor and director Paul Benedict. Most people will remember him is the oddball neighbor Mr. Bentley on The Jeffersons, or maybe as the crazy gay director in The Goodbye Girl, or a number of other roles.

But for me he will always be associated with my grandmother.

I was living in Cincinnati in 1982, and HBO was running The Electric Grandmother, an adaptation of Ray Bradbury's I Sing The Body Electric! starring Maureen Stapleton and Edward Herrmann. Now, my Bradbury has always been spotty. Dunno why, because I read some of his stories in, like, 3rd grade, and loved 'em to death. Maybe it's just that I'd never had my own collection of his stuff to that point. But I had not yet read that story. Hadn't seen the Twilight Zone episode. Go fig. I guess I thought it was a plain ol' robot story. So I went in cold.

If, by chance, you have not read this story, summarizing it will not do it justice. Linking to the Wikipedia page or the Google search will not do it justice. Go find it, go read it. And understand that the most important and influential person in my life was Garboo, my maternal grandmother, and watching the adaptation of that story -- told from the point of view of a character named Tom! -- made me cry harder than I had cried for anything in my life. And I called Garboo on the phone and she had to calm me down and get me to slow my blubbering long enough to tell her that, yes, everything was fine, I just really really loved her and missed her a lot.

Paul Benedict played Mr. Fantoccini. And he was a delight on screen, it made me smile just to see him, and then the story whomped me in the heart, and he will live there forever as the gentlest and best-intentioned and most successful of mad scientists and wizards and makers of magic and keepers of the secrets of grandmotherly love.

While searching for Mr. Benedict's NYT obit, I found that Beverly Garland had also passed away. Nowhere near the level of either Benedict or Bettie Page, but still a loss -- a beautiful, classy lady, who cranked out some fine acting in a bunch of movies she was way too good for. Lotsa low-budget sci-fi thrillers. She didn't like playing the shrieking flower, either; when things went south, like as not she'd pick up the gun from the hand of her fallen husband or boyfriend, if she'd bothered with such in the first place, and become the hero herself.

And if you can't figure out how important that psychological notion might have been to a budding generation of geeks, I don't think you ever will.

I met her very briefly at the first MST3K ConventioConExpoFestARama, and she was lovely and gracious and way more interesting than all the pin-up girls I've ever met at a comic-con.

So, Mr. Benedict, Ms. Garland, farewell, and thank you both.

Sigh.

What performances have touched you, have changed your life? Don't have to list 'em all -- I certainly haven't; you don't have to go into detail unless you want to.

Comments

[kilbia.livejournal.com]

Going to see "Cats" in the summer between 6th and 7th grade definitely affected my life. And I choose not to go into detail, thanks. =)

[markbernstein.livejournal.com]

Oddly, a search of "Electric Grandmother" on Amazon didn't show it as being available from Amazon, but did turn up a couple of useful links.

The first thing that comes to mind is a pair of performances - Diane Lane and Thelonious Bernard (yes, I had to look it up) in A Little Romance. A movie that proudly declares that it's OK to be smart and different.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Somewhere I've got a bootleg DVD of it. Gotta dig through and find that....

[doubledgedtruth.livejournal.com]

I usually visit Dead or Alive Info (http://www.deadoraliveinfo.com) to find out famous/semi-famous people that die recently, usually when another big celeb dies. People are dying a lot lately, this perturbs me.

As far as life altering performances, I've never been one for plays. I remember watching Requiem for a Dream the first time, and staring at the screen, motionless, speechless, through the credits. I must have had some look on my face. I decided then and there, never to touch anything remotely like that.

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

"It's A Wonderful Life" jarred me out of an adolescent "suicidal" depression. I still kick everyone out of the house to watch it at least once a year, usually but not always around this time of the year, and cry my eyes out.

[ldydragon7.livejournal.com]

It hasn't quite changed my life but back in 1998 when I was in high school I saw the original off-Broadway production of "The Last Session". The performance really touched me and even now just listening to the sound track brings back a wonderful swirl of emotions. Plus it has one of the most beautiful duets between two men that I have ever heard.

[markbernstein.livejournal.com]

Now that I look again, those two links I posted are probably for bootlegs.

[bayushisan.livejournal.com]

There are couple things that really affected me.

One was an episode of Amazing Stories, about a boy who meets a magical being who advises him to hold on to those things that made him happy. Being a child at heart essentially. I saw it at a time in my life where I really needed to and I don't think I've been the same since.

Then there was Harvey. I actually saw a high school stage production of it when I was in elementary school. Again this was a story that changed me and kept my head in the clouds.

Through out my life this has been the story. Whenever I've truly needed it, I've always seen a movie or read a book that emphasized how important it was to be a dreamer.

Rich Fantasy Lives, also came to me at a point in my life where I really needed it. It's helped me in ways that I can't really explain so let me say thank you for recording it and writing the music to Rob Balder's words.

[barbarakitten-t.livejournal.com]

didn't see "the Electric Grandmother" on this list, but here is the entry for the Ray Bradbury Chronicles on imdb

Speaking of Nerds

[baronet.livejournal.com]

To pick one that comes to mind, Revenge of the Nerds, for the scene at the end (if I may be permitted to spoil it) where the message is "we are all outcasts in one way or another". The earlier scene where the sex-crazed nerd proves more interested and imaginative while having sex than the jock was also an important perspective for me.